Formatting & mentions
Make messages clearer with bold, italic, strikethrough, links, inline code and code blocks, and pull someone in with an @mention that notifies them.
Basic formatting, Advanced mentions. Plain text is fine, but a little formatting makes coaching instructions far easier to follow: emphasise the important set, link the form, mention the person who needs to act.
Formatting your message
The web composer is what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Apply formatting and the text changes right there as you type, exactly how it will send.
The formatting toolbar is tucked away until you ask for it. Click the formatting button in the row of controls beside the message box and the toolbar appears above it; click it again to hide it. The toolbar buttons highlight to show what’s active where your cursor is.
| Format | How | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | toolbar Bold or ⌘/Ctrl + B | do this first |
| Italic | toolbar Italic or ⌘/Ctrl + I | gently |
| toolbar Strikethrough | ||
Inline code |
toolbar Inline code | 3×5 @ RPE8 |
| Code block | toolbar Code block | a fenced multi-line block |
| Link | select text, then Add link, then type a URL | the form |
Those six are the whole toolbar. There are no headings, lists or quotes.
Links are safe by default. A link with no scheme becomes
https://, and onlyhttpandhttpslinks are ever made clickable, so a pasted or typedjavascript:ordata:link is never turned into one. If what you type isn’t a usable web address, the link is simply cleared rather than inserted.
Here’s the same coaching message plain, then formatted. Note how much faster the second one is to scan:
• Back squat
3×5 @ RPE8• Don't skip the warm-up
Log it when you're done 💪
Graceful by design: formatting is stored alongside the text as ranges, not baked into it. A client on an older app, or anywhere rich text can’t render, still sees the full message as clean plain text. Nothing is ever lost or shown as stray symbols.
@Mentions
Type @ and start a name to pull up the people in the conversation (up to eight matches at a time, and never yourself). Pick one and it’s inserted as a mention, a highlighted reference that notifies that specific person, even in a busy group. Use the ↑/↓ keys and Enter to choose from the list. While the list is open, Enter picks a name rather than sending the message, and Esc dismisses the list.
A mention always stays readable on both sides of the conversation: it picks up an accent colour on incoming messages, and an underline on your own sent messages so it never disappears into the bubble.
Who gets notified? Only the people you actually mention get the extra “mentioned you” nudge. Everyone in the conversation still receives the normal new-message notification. See Notifications.
On mobile
Clients read all of this formatting and mentions in full in the mobile app. For now they compose in plain text, so a client’s replies come through as plain text, while everything you send from the web composer renders richly for them. See Messaging on mobile.
Next: changed your mind about a message? Editing & deleting →